Railway Official’s Comparison With Germany Called Bullshit

From Mop:

Sorry, Ministry of Railway spokesperson, the Berlin to Frankfurt high-speed rail is only 29 euros

High-level national leaders these days like to draw comparisons with foreign countries, thus making those dissenting voices in the populace shut up and stop questioning their glorious achievements. Just now, I saw another big shot. This is the rubbish he’s spouting:

Wang Yongping, spokesman for the Ministry of Railways said during a news interview on the 26th said that the Wuhan – Guangzhou high-speed rail was full to capacity, and that at present it was very difficult to get tickets.


Wang Yongping was aboard the G1002 high-speed train from Guangzhou to Beijing when he said this. In response to on-site reporters’ questions about the price of tickets, Wang Yongping said that the price of tickets on the Wuhan – Guangzhou high-speed rail could not be compared to any other within China. As he understood it, the Berlin – Frankfurt high speed train traveled at three hundred kilometers per hour, the distance traveled was only half that of the Wuhan – Guangzhou railway, but the price of a ticket was thousands of yuan. At the present time, tickets on the Wuhan – Guangzhou railway’s are priced at a preliminary operating price, and might be changed.

Really? Let’s not get into that yet.

Firstly, the people’s eyes are bright, that they leave messages when they have issues is right, that they are asking questions is correct. That is, how can you draw comparisons only with Germany, and convert prices in euros to RMB to draw comparisons, why didn’t he mention Germany’s per capita income? If you want to use consumption as a basis for comparison, that is to say that if the price of tickets on the Berlin – Frankfurt line are 1000 yuan, then Germany’s average income is 15,000 yuan. With an income of 15,000 per month, is a 1000 yuan train ticket expensive? But in our country the average income is only 1500 yuan per month. So what kind of logic is this, this comparison of the price of tickets and not income? It is drunk logic! It is kindergarten logic! It is con-man logic!

Germany’s average income is around 1500 euro per month, and with regard to consumers, is cheaper than China. You could say that as long as you didn’t enjoy a luxurious lifestyle, you could get away with spending 1000 euro a month (usually 600 – 800 is enough, you’d still be able to drink beer and coke every day on 600), and this 1000 euro would include everything you’d need to eat, live, wear, transport costs (gasoline etc.), 1200 euro would allow you to live more comfortably. Naturally this would be for city living.

Can I ask if a person living in a city in China could live well by spending 1200 yuan a month?

Let’s get back to the price of tickets on the Berlin – Frankfurt line.

The Ministry of Railways spokesman said that tickets on the Berlin – Frankfurt high speed train were more than 1000 yuan RMB, and you could say that he was right. But this is the price for idiots. This price is mainly for those tourists who come to Germany. This is a price that is just for show. In reality the prices for German train tickets are extremely flexible, and trains are very convenient. In Germany when people go on long journeys, other than private cars they travel by train. Inter-city travel by car is almost non existent.

How much do Berlin – Frankfurt tickets really cost?

In all of Germany, and not the Berlin – Frankfurt line, that is to say from the north all the way to the south, as long as you reserve tickets three days in advance, second class tickets are just 29 euro (and German tickets can be booked a year in advance, so I could book a ticket for December 2010 right now). You naturally need to book in advance. If you buy a tickets less than three days before you need to pay full price. Think about it how Germany’s administrators consider the needs of its citizens. Below are the prices for train tickets on the Berlin – Frankfurt line, which I just looked up.

The above prices are for the high-speed train from Berlin to Frankfurt, all are full price, the cheapest is 97 euro, and the reason: no prior booking has been made.

The above are the prices of tickets from Berlin to Frankfurt on January 8, all are at the discounted price of 29 euro (113 euro, at the right, is the full price).

The price of a first class seat from Berlin to Frankfurt: full price 148 – 243 euro, there are two discounted prices, 49 euro and 53 euro. Anyway, there aren’t many first class carriages in trains.

From the price of trains, we can see how Germany’s railways make money, who they make money from, and how they embody people’s livelihood.

Actually, German Railways is a share based company in which the government holds the majority of shares . But in our country, the trains are a state enterprise, it’s the people’s own company! It’s taking the people’s money!

The speed of the train from Berlin – Frankfurt is usually under 200 kilometers per hour, I don’t know if the 300km/h high speed train the Ministry of Railways leader mention was because he has ridden one, or he heard of one, or if he just made something up to explain away the problem/question. What needs to be explained is that in Germany, the ICE are the best and fastest trains. If something is a high speed train that goes along a fixed track, it is called an ICE, or an InterCity Express.

But half of the route from Frankfurt to Paris’ Gare de l’Est is taken at speeds of over 350 km/h, with the fastest speed reached being 390 km/h. The distance is in the thousands of kilometers, and the discounted price for train tickets: a second class ticket will cost 39 euros, a first class seat is 73 euros, with the full price being three times the discounted price. Below is the price of second class tickets for the Frankfurt – Gare de l’Est station in Paris for January 8.

This is the real German rail price, and if high-level leaders insist on using Germany high-speed rail ticket prices to determine Wuhan – Guangzhou high-speed rail ticket prices, thus embodying our country’s leading cadres wholehearted purpose of serving the people, then use the income amount of 1500 as a premise and lower the second-class seat prices for the Wuhan – Guangzhou high-speed rail down to 39 yuan (RMB) and under!

Comments from Mop:

乖乖的小星:

After reading this I am really really worried, what I am worried about is the LZ‘s safety.

AHALYB2000:

Those who are not idiots, cannot become leaders.
Do you guys understand the meaning of this saying?

行健世坤:

Lou zhu
you know too much~~~~~~~~~

一个人@精彩:

The experts always have selective blindness.

贱13滚开:

LZ WATCH OUT, YOU NEED TO TEACH SOMEONE CLOSE TO YOU HOW TO USE MOP [the website], JUST IN CASE SOMETHING HAPPENS TO YOU, YOU’LL HAVE SOMEONE TO HELP YOU.

對王之王…對穿肠:

Nonsense, how could the Celestial Kingdom ever learn from the areas foreign countries are cheaper?
That which is high-priced, we must bring ourselves in line with international standards, but those that are low-priced, we pretend we don’t see!

无聊侃侃:

The spokesperson didn’t think that anyone would actually go and check a foreign website, it seems that putting up a harmonious LAN is very important. I’m sure that in a few days these websites will be accused of capitalist dumping of goods and these websites will be blocked.

★吹大了气球玩球球★:

LZ, please tell your good friends, and write your last will and testament!

cfl12cfl12:

Lou zhu can rest at ease, when one lou zhu falls, millions of lou zhu‘s will take his place~~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
Then all of them will fall~~~~~~

跑跑跳跳玩玩闹:

LZ be careful!

我是医生……:

There’s nothing we can do, our economy can’t be compared with those developed American and European countries.
Don’t just dismiss your country like that, being Chinese, we have to love our homeland.
If we don’t, how can we match little Japan, bang zi, and the like?

rudy7812:

I’m in Frankfurt. Last month I took part in a party organised by a student group for ERASMUS. A return ticket to Berlin and two nights, and all I spent was 90 euro.

William Shakespeare:

LZ, 39 euro to Paris is expensive, I got a return ticket for just 29.9 euro…

@@@@Mars:

I’ve been on the ICE, from Frankfurt to Gare l’Est in Paris.
It was around 50 euro.

The speed was completely excessive, it made me, who had just finished riding on the Harmonious Train feel the pressure.

After I arrived I noticed that my watch was 5 minutes slow.

JimCurry:

LZ calm down! Society is improving, if our population was the same as Germany’s then our train tickets wouldn’t be so expensive!

The Germans can buy tickets online, there’s little chance of that for us! We can never get one! The reason? The reason is because our population is too big!

Too many people… too many people…

Cheaper than the Wuhan-Guangdong High Speed Rail. chinaSMACK personals.

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69 Comments

  1. Obviously, you don’t understand Mathematics with Chinese characteristics. It is similar to statistics with Chinese characteristics. When you are reading numbers, any number, from China, you need to have faith to make them real.

  2. Communism. Didn’t you want a cup? Then have a CUP AND A HALF!!!! (lame translation of a spanish saying)

  3. L2DR

    Anyway, travelling with high-speed-train in Germany is only reasonable if you a frequent traveller or if you are not-full-age/retired/handicapped. Many times going by plane is cheaper and quicker, just like in good old GDR times.

  4. Ahh All these lovely trains being built everywhere. Sure wish we could have some new ones in the USA.

    • new ones? rofl i wasnt aware we had ANY in the US. just yesterday i took the Amtrak from NY Penn Stn to Newark Airport and it was DELAYED. i took the airport high-speed trains in hong kong and tokyo before.. i can’t imagine those getting delayed. i mean people are trying to make flights here.

    • Supposedly we’re in planning stages for one in the midwest. Doubt you’ll see it up until 2013-14 though. Thanks US government for buttfucking the citizens because Joe America thinks its a better idea to drive a car.

  5. HI I AM BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK~~~~~
    WELL, Everybody knows that mother China is plainly a show-off country and that they want to show they ve catched up with developed nations. Whatever high-tech shit is adopted in this nation it can never be for the common (stupid) people but for a facade that the country is getting there. With tickets above 1000rmb seems like there will be a lot of empty trains going up and down. Im sorry for the lonely conductor.
    zhongguo jiayou!

    • HI I DONT GIVE A F************CKKKKKKKKKK~~~~~

      First of all the trains will not be empty, its China.

      • BE REALISTIC YOU JERK, most chinese earn 1000rmb per month and they are farmers. Do you really think there will be farmers going up and down china woth thir fangbianmian bags with them?

        • most of chinese aren’t farmer, you stupid moron. where you got this stastitics?

          • most chinese arent farmers? mice butcher? are you in china? jackass, the majority of china`s population ARE farmers. China has 800 million farmers, its population is about 1.4 billion people, jackass they ARE farmers

  6. Shitty comparisons aside, the decision to increase the ticket price makes perfect senses.

    As the article suggested, obviously there is a huge demand for it, more so than the trains can supply. And the current price is set at below the equilibrium price. Enable to have max efficiency , you ought to set the price at the equilibrium point, thus raising the price makes sense.

    Also the nature of high speed trains in China and Europe are completely different, in Europe the general form of train traveled are more or less all high speed, and everyone need to get around often, thus the trains in Europe are more or less inelastic, can be deemed as necessity goods. While China already has a pretty well developed none-high speed trains infrastructure, most people are able to use that for travel, and the high speed trains more elastic, deeming it luxury goods. Its current purpose is not to serve the general public, but the wealthy or business class who can and is willing to afford it.

    Now if China have replaced almost all of their rails with high speed rails, then the people can complain about the lack of government subsidies.Other wise, welcome to market driven capitalism, comrades.

    • yeah this “good” is usually not priced at market price. i think most governments believe they have some obligation to provide reliable, affordable transportation.

      • Do you realize how much it would cost to provide high-speed rail service that wouldn’t be overrun by scalpers?

      • You are right if these high speed trains are the backbones of the rail transportation, but like I said before, they are luxury items, even though the government does claim ownership to it. It would make sense for the government to subsidize the regular railroad.

    • equilibrium your ass!! You come here all with your intellectually-formed words with this explanation and think that is it? show proof, show us all this bullshit of equilibrium and prove you are not just another smart ass trying to convince these stupid commentators of china smack that you are smart just because of the beautiful but senseless words you use.

      • Laowai,

        I never stated that my intention here is to inform the masses, in fact the precise reason why I’m here is to be just another smart ass trying to convince these stupid commentators of china smack that I am smart just because of the beautiful but senseless words I use.

    • Specious bullcrap. The train is running at capacity despite such high prices. If you lower the rates the result will be that prices will still be rather high due to scalpers reselling tickets to meet demand.

    • right, right, because we have to take in every single possible variable to calculate for something simple. no wonder my utility function didn’t make sense, because I forgot the price the of tobaccos in Egypt and which way the wind is blowing.

  7. There’s another misconception about trains in Germany.

    As far as I know there’s no dedicated high-speed railway line between Frankfurt and Berlin. From Wuhan to Guangzhou there are about 1000 km high speed tracks.

    I’ve often taken trains in the past here and they aren’t as fast as everybody thinks.

    ~Xueyu~

  8. There are a few problems with the above article.

    The official price for a ticket Berlin Frankfurt is really 100Eur, the super saver price is 29Eur. But you cannot always get that price. In particular, you probably won’t get it on Fridays or weekends etc. In the above pictures, next to the saver price it said “check availability” – and I bet the tickets won’t be available ;).

    If you compare ticket prizes, the better comparison (rather than average income) would be to use purchasing power parities. According to the world banks international comparison program, in 2005 the ppp between Germany and China were about 3.9, so the 29 Eur tickets would be about 74 RMB after ppp, the 100 Eur tickets would be 240 RMB after ppp.

    Also, the distance between Frankfurt and Paris is less than 700Km, not ‘in the thousands’.

    “But half of the route from Frankfurt to Paris’ Gare de l’Est is taken at speeds of over 350 km/h, with the fastest speed reached being 390 km/h.” I doubt this. The maximal speed for high speed trains in Germany is 300km/h, the maximal speed in France is 320km/h.

    In fact the Wuhan-Guangzhou line seems to be the fastest train connection in terms of average speed (312km/h), and the Beijing-Tianjin train seems to have the fastest top speed of a conventional wheeled train (350km/h).

    You can’t fight misleading information with misleading information.

    • ant6n is right. these prices aren’t always available, and on popular days or popular routes the €29 tickets sell out fast. on the other hand, i’ve had enough luck to book €23 tickets from berlin to paris just a few days before… the point is the deals are there, and the prices _feel_ fair to even a casual user like me.

    • A couple of correction points to your allegations:
      1) In 2006 the Madrid-Barcelona line was already commercially ridden at 250 km/h using AVE Velaro trains (of SIEMENS design and manufacture) and is now running at 300km/h, the designed commercial operating limit.
      2) In 2015 the Hokkaido Shinkansen line will top 360 km/h. So Beijing/Tianjin has had the fastest top speed of a “conventional wheeled train” running commercially since 2008 (with Chinese characteristics or other).
      Finally, going so fast depends on efficient electricity generation, as air resistance increases proportional to V^2. If speed is the object, then the record with wheels is the French TGV, beating its own record since several decades, presently at 574.8km/h and making a whole lot of smoke while running at that test speed. Without wheels, the MagLev hits 581 km/h on the 18km long test track. The reason trains do not travel with passengers at these speeds is simply fuel efficiency due to air resistance, safety and wear. You don’t know where China stands on this path because you are a bigot.

    • Good that at least one person with a brain is around. Actually, TGV in France is quite fast, and running on dedicated high speed tracks. Maximum ICE speed in Germany is 250km/h, and that is achieved only on some parts of the route, e.g. there is a distinct highspeed track between Würzburg and Fulda.

      You are also right with the prices. Discount is only for a limited number of seats on each train – nice for fun passengers.

      And, btw. German trains and train transportation system are in a miserable shape due to privatization craze. Train traffic nearly stopped at a bit of snowfall and a little of cold weather.

      The only thing where the article is absolutely right is the mentioning of booking, reservation and information system available online. That one is indeed excellent and one of the best in the world. It is the only thing China may and should learn from.

  9. Well, here is a good one for comparison :
    In France, not only you can book/pay online, but you can choose your seat, choose if you prefer a “quiet” zone for sleeping/reading or a more “lively” one for chatting and the funniest : you can get the facebook of the people who’s going to travel next to you. I doubt you’ll get that one in China ;-)

    The problem with european fast trains is that they compete with plane, and prices are set accordingly. The same thing will happen in China, or even worse. They should go to the best for China, not for the fastest / biggest face train.

    Buying online long time in advance makes a real big difference in everyday life, as well as “no mobile phone in sitting areas”. These kind of small details are much more important than 20km/h faster or slower.

  10. By LZ’s argument, the price of goods in China should be adjusted in accordance with the average income. Does this mean the Chinese are entitled to purchase air fair for $20, go on a cruise for $100, buy a bmw for $8000?

    Ludicrous

    • But see, your examples are totally off the topic.

      Air fare: of course 20 dollars may be a big under the actual cost but not by much. The other month, my mom flew from Beijing to Hong Kong for 300-400 yuan. That’s about 20 dollars off the price you listed. Trains are preferred over planes by the Chinese people mentioned in the article.

      Cruise: Cruises are obviously aimed at tourists. Tourists in China that are well off enough to go on the cruise in the first place would not be getting the average 1500 yuan/month income.

      BMW: Imported cars will have the price they have. This is not swayed by how much money the average Chinese person has. They however can buy their CHINESE BRAND car for well under 8000 dollars.

      • But see, your examples are totally off the topic.
        The $8000 Chinese car and a BMW have totally different levels of equipment.
        The airfare is only $20 more, but that’s still double and the ticket price of 29 euros does not cover costs, it’s only used to reduce losses by filling up empty seats, where as the CRH prices are reflective of the costs of the project.
        The steel and equipment used during construction make up the majority of the cost, which are both imported, hence the ticket prices are reflective of international prices, at about 50 of the German price-km price.
        Also migrant workers would not be taking this train as in your example of the cruise. The people who take this train will be well off enough such as business people or middle class families of which there are plenty.
        There will still be plenty of normal trains at much cheaper prices.

      • BTW, BMW 3 and 5 series are manufactured in China.

  11. China needs more people like the guy/girl who posted their thoughts like this onto the internet.
    Applaud :) And I thank the translator of cSMACK for posting this on here too :D

  12. Hi there
    Great to see you people know so much about German train systems. Unfortunately we in Germany know nothing about China. But we will have to learn one day from you. We are very stupid that we don´t do it now. You are learning from us but we are to conceited to learn from you. Anyhow: Not yet, it seems. You seem to still have to solve some problems—Maybe your main problem is that the Government doesn´t care what it´s people think. The poor German railway is always critized and not always fairly but it works!!!! Maybe one day your criticism will also have an effect.
    So good luck anyhow!!!

  13. “It is con-man logic!”

    This is the only kind of logic in China.

  14. China dream to have high-speed train since 20 years. But in fact, the European (France, Germany, Italy, Spain) and Japan, never want to transfert technology. Then, they find the solution, they created a consortium together only for China, so china can’t play with concurrence and must paie high price. This is why now the ticket is expensive for customers.

    About technology, this train is quick because there’re not many stations between start and end, but in fact this technology is 20 years old and already expired, the new technology is AGV (high-speed self-propelled carriage)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotrice_%C3%A0_grande_vitesse

    • 20 years ago, no commercial service operated at 350km/h
      20 years ago, commercial services operated at 250km/h
      AGV is not new technology, it’s the same as the ICE and Shinkansen (Distributed traction instead of push and pull on the TGV) with some improvements in efficiency and weight compared to the current TGV.
      It’s still only in the prototype stage with expected service speed of 360km/h, 10km/h faster than this service, which started construction 4 years ago and is now already operating. Essentially it’s a product playing catch up with their other counterparts.

  15. The most important part of this post is not the pricing structure relative to the salary of the people – the most important part is most definitely the fact that the train is a state owned enterprise, not a private enterprise.

    More ridiculously overpriced dinner banquest for officials, profit from their friends who own the hosting places, and less spending money for the poor souls who end up using the overpriced rail system instead of slightly-more-expensive flights.

    • German train system is state owned, too, only pretending to be private what led to dismissal of more than 200,000 employees and excessive bonuses for incompetent top managers. In Germany, far distance train service other that and cheaper than ICE has been crippled in order to draw more fees from the customers.

      In China, there are the Z trains, but also the T and lower categories at reasonable prices, and the train transportation system is extended every year. Granted, reservation in China is a backward and often a mess, especially around Spring Festival and National Day. But at least there are chances for improvement.

  16. The technology which is used in China is up to date…just unlike they pretend it is NOT domestically developed in most parts.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_Velaro
    http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_Velaro

  17. 1. These people behave as if the whole country will return home on a HST on Chinese new year but many will stand for DAYS

  18. Speed is one thing, having all the toilets blocked in the first hour of travel is another. That doesn’t happen in Europe!

  19. Booooooorrrrrrriiiiiinnnnnngggggggg

    Only in China could calling bullshit on a government official over public transport costs be called “edgy”, it’s pathetic to see people in China freak out over someone criticising a politician in such a mild way, acting like the dude who made the thread is some sort of future political martyr.

    During the last presidential election a UNDP politician tried to shake my hand when I was leaving a shopping centre and I just said “suck my dick commie!” and kept walking. Try doing that to a Chinese politician and you’ll have your teeth knocked out by the police one by one.

  20. This is definitely con-logic

  21. “In Germany when people go on long journeys, other than private cars they travel by train. Inter-city travel by car is almost non existent.”

    This is not true. But perhaps the “car” in “Inter-city travel by car” was badly translated from 汽车 as bus?

  22. >But this is the price for idiots.

    Stupid statement. There are valid reasons to pay full price. Not everybody has the flexibility or time to hunt for discounts.

    My Iranian friend always buys a group ticket and then looks for travelers just before he leaves.

  23. The Chinese male owns a sand filled vagina.

  24. Is there nothing Chinese men wont fucking cry about? They are the biggest fucking crybabies in the world. They whine about everything. Lie, cheat and steal whenever it suits their agenda. If they can’t have it their way, then they throw a fucking tantrum.

    Chinese men arn’t men. They are spoiled pre-pubescent girls with dicks. Whenever you see 10 or more Chinese school kids beating up on a helpless nerdy kid over a very very minor infraction, you cant help but think this is a microcosm of China.

    • “Chinese men arn’t men. They are spoiled pre-pubescent girls with dicks”

      Stop saying that or millions of horny Japs will emigrate to China and cause chaos

    • Of course you don’t see the irony in yourself crying and whining about Chinese men crying and whining. You are Korean after all.

    • korean guy,
      i am a chinese guy. we are all asians and decendent of the HAN people.

      we asians should not fight among over asians.

      the real enemies today are the white people. we asians must unify and kick the whites out of asia.

  25. dont you know chinese officials are low IQed??

  26. I need to point out one important inaccuracy with the example distances for German train connections in the article. The price quotes are preceded by the tiiiiiny German word “ab …”, which means “starting from”, or “from…upward”. In over 20 years in Germany, I as a regular consumer never managed to purchase anything for the minimum price stated in connection with this mean little word “ab”. It is merely a sales/marketing tool and makes for a bad and especially unreliable example to base an argument on.

    Also, when quoting the German “average” income, remember that there is a significant part of that number which the Germans do not receive into their pockets – they are paying much more in taxes than the Chinese do! And trust me, living on EUR 600 a month, you will not be drinking much coke unless it’s a generic brand, and you will not be sitting in a Bavarian Biergarten very often to enjoy a fresh beer.

  27. Simple math here?

    The official stated that the train ticket cost 1000 Yuan, and that the average Germans make roughly 15,000 Yuan per month.

    The author mocked the official because according to discount fare webpage the train ticket can be reduced to 29 Euros from the full price, which is 113 Euros.

    At a conversation rate of roughly 10:1, 113 Euros can roughly equals to 1000 Yuan. Germany’s per capita income of 2008 was roughly 25,000 Euros, which comes out to be around 20,000 Yuan per month.

    If anything, I would say that the official’s argument is more or less accurate because not everyone can get full discount tickets all the time.

  28. there is something in a face like this
    http://www.chinasmack.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/wang-yongping-china-railway-spokesperson-02.jpg
    that makes you want to vomit

    Not sure what it is – perhaps something swine?

  29. As if the Chinese Rail had foreseen the dissidents’comments coming, they named the trains “Harmony”.

  30. This LZ is a fucking stupid douche and knows nothing about Germany.

    Germans who are earning like 600 Euros a month wont be able to afford any overpriced ticket by the pile of fail thats called DEUTSCHE BAHN. From that 600 Euros, more than 200 will be payed as rental fee for a shitty small and smelling flat, another 200 for water, electricity and gas and the last 200 are for living expenses. Of course only, if the 600 Euros are clear, without taxes. But mostly not.

    And with 200 Euro a month, you wont be able to lead any half-decent life above any social-wellfare Hartz-4 queen.

    • “Germans who are earning like 600 Euros a month wont be able to afford any overpriced ticket by the pile of fail thats called DEUTSCHE BAHN. From that 600 Euros, more than 200 will be payed as rental fee for a shitty small and smelling flat, another 200 for water, electricity and gas and the last 200 are for living expenses. Of course only, if the 600 Euros are clear, without taxes. But mostly not.”

      oh and what about chinese farmers that dont make more then 600rmb?

      the 1500euro a month is the fair german everage income.

  31. ok, i do get your point, and the message of the official is nonsense, but still there are some mistakes in your article:

    1. there are really cheap tickets in germany, but they are really hard to purchase. and you are not flexible anymore, eg. you are not allowed to go by train on a sunday, or you are not allowed to use the ice (high speed train) and so on… so often its a pain to buy a ticket, therefore:

    2. inter-city-car-travel is the most common thing in germany! its the country where the Autobahn (high-speed-motorway) was invented and the whole country is bloody covered with it! bmw,porsche,mercedes… these cars are not made for going to the nearby supermarket.!

    but still, a comparison germany-china is absolute nonsense.

  32. “Cheaper than the Wuhan-Guangdong High Speed Rail. chinaSMACK personals.”

    self-owned lol

  33. Yeah, Germany does have two prices. Full price and early bird price. But there is a limited quantity for early bird. If someone wishes to get a early bird ticket from Frankfurt to Berlin, he will have a tough time.

    It says you get a early bird ticket until 4 days prior to the journey, but on popular lines like Frankfurt – Berlin you have to buy the tickets like 2 weeks in advance to get such a cheap price.

  34. “It says you get a early bird ticket until 4 days prior to the journey, but on popular lines like Frankfurt – Berlin you have to buy the tickets like 2 weeks in advance to get such a cheap price.”

    Men, that would be a dream, being able of buying a ticket two weeks in advance in China, hahahhhahahah

  35. Chinese officials are all bureaucrats. Most of them have no expertise and they are mostly devoid of any charisma. How can these ‘leaders’ lead?

    Most Chinese people have this odd logic, that goes something like, “defend your country’s faults against criticism, and your country will improve”

    I say we need MORE criticism, more people need to question these bureaucrat clowns and let them know that their decisions and actions do not go unnoticed.

  36. Good eye, Jones. Not me. As much as it bruises my ego, I’m not the only Kai in the world. BTW, the China trains I’ve been on also open onto the tracks.

    Jay K, I can’t recall you EVER saying something with good thought. Gargle my balls.

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